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The Italian immigrant founded a butcher shop that was a neighbourhood fixture for 50 years. He died March 20.

A collection of family photos shows Vince Gasparro over the years, from his younger days as a local butcher in Toronto in the 1960s, to his later years with his growing family.

For almost half a century, Vince Gasparro's butcher shop has been a neighbourhood staple at Bloor St. W. and Ossington Ave. Friends, family and community members fondly remember the local butcher who passed away on March 20 after a long battle with cancer. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

For half a century, local butcher Vince Gasparro was a neighbourhood fixture in the Bloor St. West and Ossington Ave. area.

A steady stream of customers has been coming through his butcher shop in recent days, paying respects to the late business owner. Some are younger and fairly new to the area. Others are loyal customers who have been coming to the shop for years.

One, an older man, broke down in tears last Thursday, while clutching the arm of Gasparro’s son, Pat. Vince was like a brother to him, he said in Italian.

Gasparro died March 20 at the age of 77, after a four-year battle with leukemia. Since then, the shop has been filled with family photos, cards, and gifts from community members whose lives he touched since first opening a store in the area back in 1960. Gasparro knew everyone, it seems — and everyone knew him.

“Vince was the first person to really welcome us to the neighbourhood 17 years ago. Very soon after, all of you became more than just our butcher but our friends,” reads one card.

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“He has been such a lovely presence in the community for so many years — always ready with a warm greeting and some good advice,” reads another.

Gasparro leaves behind his wife of 48 years, Tina, and his three grown children, Lucy, Pat and Nick.

Pat and Nick have been running the shop for several years while their father went through the ups and downs of chemotherapy, and both said they’ve been touched by the outpouring of support after his death.

“He was a fixture. People would come in, and they knew he was there to serve,” Pat recalls.

Gasparro’s customers were like family, says Jason Teasdale, who has worked in the butcher shop for more than two years. “He did it for the people, not the money,” he says.

One memory in particular stands out for Pat. At times, customers would tell his father they were waiting for pension cheques to arrive later in the month, and he would let them pay later — which sometimes meant rows of slips tacked up by the cash register listing how much each person owed.

“I would say, ‘Dad, what are we doing here?’ He wouldn’t care,” Pat recalls. “If the person didn’t have the money, he would help them out.”

Greg Nye, who lives in the neighbourhood, says he knew Gasparro for a few years and once spoke to him about his battle with cancer.

“He gave me a big hug,” Nye recalls. “It was so heartfelt and spontaneous. That’s just the way he was.”

Gasparro was born in Bari, in southeastern Italy, in 1938 — an area hit hard by bombing during the Second World War. Many people left the city, including Gasparro, who moved to Toronto in 1957. His sons say he learned how to be a butcher at the age of 15, so opening a butcher shop and grocery store was a natural fit.

Gasparro opened the current location on the south side of Bloor St. W., Vince Gasparro’s Meat Market, in 1991. Other business owners in the area say he brought a certain warmth to the neighbourhood — the sort of person who knew everyone’s names, and would sometimes hand-deliver meats to nearby businesses.

Asres Meknnen, who owns Lalibela, an Ethiopian restaurant down the street, knew Gasparro for more than 20 years. Clad in black after attending the funeral last Wednesday, he described Gasparro as a “grandpa” to everyone in the area.

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